Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Physicians' Prescribing Practices of Analgesics to Treat Moderate to Severe Acute Pain

Bill H. McCarberg, MD, bill.h.mccarberg@kp.org¹, Aarti A. Patel, PharmD MBA², Carmela J. Benson, MS³, Samir H. Mody, PharmD MBA⁴, Wing Chow, PharmD MPH³, Gary Vorsanger, MD PhD³, Myoung S. Kim, PhD MBA³, (1) UCSD, Escondido, California, (2) Outcomes Research, Raritan, New Jersey, (3) Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC, Raritan, New Jersey, (4) Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Purpose: Acute pain is common and is often inadequately managed. The objective of this analysis was to evaluate physician-prescribing practices of opioid analgesics for the treatment of moderate to severe acute pain, and management of related side effects from the Physicians Partnering against Pain (P3) survey data. Methods: The P3 survey was the largest nationwide survey of U.S. physicians and patients with moderate to severe acute pain (<3 months). Surveyed physicians provided their specialty type, frequency of prescribing opioid analgesics for these patients, percentage of patients returning for follow-up visit after pain treatment, reasons patients discontinue treatment, and frequency of prescribing or recommending treatment for opioid-related gastrointestinal (GI) side effects (SEs). Results: The 5,982 participating physicians represented primary care (52%), pain specialists (25%), and other specialists (23%). Sixty-five percent of physicians prescribed opioid “often” or “usually,” and over 55% reported > 75% of their patients return for a follow-up visit after initial acute pain treatment. Physicians reported SEs as a barrier to effective pain management with 55% of physicians ranking unacceptable GI or other SEs as the most common reason patients discontinue opioids. Moreover, 63% of physicians prescribed or recommended treatment for opioid-related GI SEs "often" or "usually," and 65% of physicians reported patients "often" or "usually" take additional treatments to manage opioid-related GI SEs. Conclusion: As evidenced by this large physician survey, the study findings confirm the challenge in pain management balancing pain relief and tolerability of opioid treatments.

Funding: This work was funded by Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC.